Guilt
by StaleMushrooms
Summary: Trunks tries to mend a broken friendship with his former best friend after a recent event in their lives.


This is the happy-go-lucky chapter! Yippee! Hurray! P.S. I don't own shit, got that? ________________________________________________________________________  
  
Trunks had a hard time trying not to smile as dozens of little kids scampered around the park. And it was no exaggeration either. There must have been a hundred kids here to attend his sister's 9th birthday party. Yep, and here he was stuck in the middle of this mess. At least he had someone to suffer with. Or he thought he had someone. Instead Goten was out there on all of the rides that had been set up, playing with his sister and her friends. To him, any self-respecting 18 year old would be busy doing something else right now, like sulking around on the ground with him. Oh well, playing with a bunch of little kids couldn't be that bad, could it? With a resigning sigh he got up and headed for the crowd of little children, now watching Goten do some rather strange tricks with his eyes that he probably didn't need to see.  
  
"Enjoying yourself?" he asked in a friendly tone.  
  
Goten instantly stopped what he was doing and looked over at Trunks with an innocent face. "I'm showing off to a bunch of impressionable kids. With luck they'll all grow up and be just like me!"  
  
"Kami, you're stupid Goten."  
  
"What, it works."  
  
Just then Bra decided to latch onto Goten's leg. Trunks loved watching this little show.  
  
"Okay kids, scoot back if you want to see something funny." Trunks said, chuckling slightly.  
  
"Er, Bra, could you please get off of me? You're a little strong for this you know?" Goten said, making his friendliest smile appear on his face, the one that could melt any girl's heart in an instant. Unfortunately, it didn't work.  
  
Sighing in defeat, Goten asked, "What do I have to do to get you off?"  
  
"Oh, nothing," she said with a mischievous smile, "you just have to take me to the mall every week from now on, buy me some new clothes, help me with my school project..." She rounded off a laundry list of items that he had difficulty believing she had made up on her own. By the time this was done all of the kids were laughing, much to Goten's humiliation.  
  
"So do you agree?"  
  
"No." Goten said firmly.  
  
"Awww come on, please."  
  
"Fine, I agree to your long list of tasks Almighty Queen of this insignificantly small park." He said sarcastically.  
  
"So you'll be more than happy to carry out the list?"  
  
"Yes, your Highness." Goten said in a surrendering tone.  
  
Upon escaping from the crowd of kids, Goten good-naturedly threw Trunks into the middle of the parade. Goten smiled at him and watched from the sidelines as Trunk's public humiliation began.  
  
***  
  
The party was wrapping up now. The vast majority of the kids had already gone home and the rest had a ride arranged for them. Bra had elected to stay at the park and play longer.  
  
As Goten turned to leave the scene and let Trunks handle everything, he ran straight into a kid who seemed to have conveniently placed himself directly in the way of his walking path. He looked like your typical kid; he was of medium height and had short black hair. The one feature that didn't look like it belonged were the troubling green eyes.  
  
"So, what's your name?" He asked the child patiently.  
  
"Seth." He answered without taking his eyes off of Goten's face.  
  
"Who's going to pick you up?"  
  
"My brother." He said it as though he hated his brother more than anything on the planet.  
  
"You don't like him?"  
  
"If I had the chance to shove a knife through his back I would." Goten was shocked. How could some nine year old kid be thinking of things like that?  
  
Seth noticed the look of concern on his face. "You know I mean that, don't you?"  
  
Slightly unsettled, Goten pasted a nervous smile on his face.  
  
"It was nice to meet you." Seth said with an ironically friendly voice.  
  
"You too." Goten was a little more than confused about the recent exchange of words. He decided to get it off his mind and go play with Bra on one of the numerous rides. He didn't get why Trunks thought it was so embarrassing to play with kids. He did it, and all of his girlfriends thought it was cute.  
  
He was heading towards the carnival rides when he tripped over Trunks who was searching intently for something on the ground. Goten fell face-first and Trunks looked over at him.  
  
"Watch where you're walking, Goten." Trunks said as he got up to his feet. "I saw you leaving. You really thought you could get away that easily?"  
  
"I've gotten away with it so many times before and there was nothing you could do to stop me," Goten said, laughing, "Do you remember Pan's birthday when I just..."  
  
"Of course I remember that. You just walked away, leaving me with an insane hyperactive child that was having too much fun pounding my face in." Trunks remembered that exactly. He had so many bumps and bruises on his body that he couldn't even sit down. Pan had been training for a bit of time, and was at the stage where if you see a potential sparring partner nearby, you go and test out your skills even if they are unwilling. Lucky for him, and most everybody else, she stopped after Vegeta kicked her in the gut because she was trying to pick a fight with him.  
  
"So what are we going to do now?" Goten asked.  
  
"Tell all of these brats to get out of here and go home."  
  
"I swear, you sound more like your dad everyday," Goten said as he got up, "So, are you going to turn into an asshole one day?"  
  
"If I do, your ass is the first one I'm going to beat." With that, Trunks got up to leave.  
  
"Wait, where are you going?" Goten yelled at him.  
  
"Have fun Goten, and make sure my sister gets home all right. She wants to stay and play a little longer. Okay? Bye." Trunks instantly disappeared, leaving a dumbfounded Goten with his mouth open just beginning to object.  
  
"You better be on your guard Trunks, because I'm coming for you."  
  
***  
  
There were three little people still running amok at the now aging birthday party. Then, one of the parents came and picked up their kid. That made two.  
  
Goten sighed in exasperation as he tried to keep Bra entertained. Why he didn't just force her to go home he didn't know. Meanwhile, that Seth kid from earlier was just sitting on a bench watching. He couldn't tell if the child was bored or amused.  
  
20 minutes later, they still hadn't left. Bra looked tired, and Seth just looked irritated. Goten walked over to him.  
  
"Are you sure your brother is coming to get you?" Goten asked, concerned.  
  
"He probably isn't coming. I guess I'll just have to walk home."  
  
"No wait. I can take you. How far away are you?"  
  
"You don't want to take me home." He said with a look that said that the sentence was probably true.  
  
"Your brother can't be that bad, can he? Besides, if he hasn't come to pick you up, then he probably isn't home either. You'll be fine." Goten said reassuringly.  
  
"It's not my safety I'm worried about."  
  
Goten was even more confused about this kid's family than before. He could draw the inference that his brother probably did something worthy of going to jail for. But why was he worried? He was half-Saiyan, and that made him stronger than most everybody on the planet.  
  
"I'm taking you home." Goten said. He turned to yell to Bra, "I'm taking this guy home. Bra, you have to come with us."  
  
"You're not taking me." Seth said in a fierce tone.  
  
"Ok, fine, I'll call Trunks to let him know what's going on then I'll call your brother to see where he is. Is that fine with you?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Goten pulled out his cellphone and noticed the low battery sign flashing. That certainly didn't help, considering it had been flashing for several days and he had fully forgotten to charge it. He dialed the Capsule Corp. number and patiently waited for the damned operator to answer the phone. They said it was for security reasons. If you didn't want to deal with the operator you called the cellphones. Oh wait, shouldn't he be doing right now? He quickly canceled his call and proceeded to call Trunks' cell.  
  
After 3 rings he picked up. "Hello Goten."  
  
Caller ID was freaky. "I just called to tell you that I'm going to be a little late bringing Bra home. I've got some business to deal with for this other kid. I just don't want you to kill me when we get there a minute late."  
  
"Oh, and Goten please don't..." The line went dead. Goten looked at his phone and realized it was blank. "Damn you, you stupid batteries." He knew it was his fault for not charging it. Now what the hell was he going to do?  
  
He turned to Seth. "Is there any other way I can get in touch with your brother?" He asked. Seth didn't answer. Goten groaned and paced in a circle. Finally, he came to a conclusion.  
  
"Bra, get over here!" He yelled across the park. She came running up to him. "Alright, I'm going to go to the public service phones at the edge of the park to call Seth's brother. It should only take a few minutes. Is everybody okay with that?" Seth just stared off at some nearby blank point. Bra looked distressed. "Seth, what's his number?" Seth handed Goten a card. "I'll be back in just a few minutes"  
  
Bra pleaded with him. "You can't just leave me here alone! I mean any stranger could just come and snatch me and run off somewhere!" Goten was surprised at the adverse reaction. She continued, "Mommy said I should always be with somebody because a lot of bad people want to get me. Is that true?" Goten felt like smacking himself in the face. Why did they have to teach her about this dumb stuff now? He sure was asking himself a lot of questions. He might as well ask himself who made the Universe. And guess what? He didn't have an answer.  
  
"Look, I'm just running up to the phone and back. It will only be like five or six minutes okay?" Bra seemed to calm down a bit but she was still begging to come with him.  
  
Goten gave her a firm "No", and then walked off to get his task accomplished. He looked back one last time to see a terribly sad look on her face. He pushed it out of his mind. It did, however, occur to him later that he probably could have easily and painlessly just taken her with him, but that wasn't exactly on his mind at the minute. What did take precedence was the date he had this afternoon with one of the hottest girls in his school.  
  
***  
  
The public service phones were farther than he thought. He was still walking at the two minute mark when he thought it would take 30 seconds. As he drew closer to the phones, he brushed past a guy. He looked to be a little bit older than him, with light black hair and black eyes that had the same troubling look that Seth's had. As a matter of fact, he was built much like him also. For a fleeting moment he thought this guy could be Seth's older brother, but the moment passed, and he found himself watching the guy as he walked into the park.  
  
The man suddenly turned his head back to look at him and Goten saw the troubled look was replaced by an insane glint in his eyes and a sick smile. Once again the moment passed, and he was looking at the same person as before. Goten blinked and wondered if he was seeing things.  
  
He picked up the phone and dialed the home number listed on the card. Several rings later and the answering machine came up. Hanging up angrily, he dialed his cell. This time, a husky young male voice answered the phone. Goten could almost feel him breathing hard into the phone.  
  
"Hi," he said in an icy voice, "how can I help you?"  
  
"Well, I was wondering if you would please pick up your brother."  
  
"I could, but would I want too?" He said and hung up.  
  
Goten angrily slammed the phone back in place, accidentally causing the entire thing to crumble to the ground. He dug around in his pocket for anything that could help him out in his present situation. He found a slip of paper that wasn't there before. He pulled it out and read it. In large script letters it simply said "Thanks." Confused as he always was, Goten decided the best course of action was to head back and think it over with Bra and that crazy guy's younger brother.  
  
***  
  
Goten arrived back at the central park area. Taking a look around, he realized he was in some serious trouble. "Oh shit..."  
  
________________________________________________________________________  
  
Unfortunately, Goten has an obviously serious problem. This is where the story picks up. Hurray. (I love that word, kind of unenthusiastic though.) 


End file.
